The Return of the Watchers (Armageddon Rising Book 1)

by Denny Bennett

  Dorian looked puzzled. “Ah, isn’t the park closed now? It’s after seven.” “The monument is a popular tourist spot, so people will still be congregated there. I wanted a public place; I just don’t trust him,” she said, as if they were venturing to a back alley drug deal. They went outside together where a limo was waiting. The driver was holding the door open for them and they got inside. Dorian looked over at Yuki. “Ok, I’m not exactly sure how the process of share transfer works, but I’m not giving him anything until I have confirmation,” he said. Dorian’s thoughts were swimming in a sea of scenarios. What if Dantanian backed out of his deal? What if something went wrong, and of course, how was he going to explain all this to Yuki? “We have several bodyguards to ensure our safety. They’re in the vehicle behind us and another one is in the front seat next to our driver as well. I’ll have my father on the phone and he will verify with his lawyers and executives that the transfer of the shares has gone through. You still have some explaining to do,” she said with a glare at him. They made eye contact and he looked down. “Of course, but right now we need to get this over with. Afterwards, I’ll fill you in on the details.” They pulled into the parking lot of the memorial, which was mostly devoid of cars with the exception of what looked like a limousine and several large SUVs parked over to the far right. The sun was making its descent and there was a slight breeze outside. Yuki’s limousine and bodyguards pulled up in an empty spot with the front of the car pointed towards the exit in case they needed to make a quick getaway. Her guards got out first and surveyed the situation, then signaled for Yuki to get out. Dorian followed after Yuki and they made their way with the sample over to the limousine that Theodore Dantanian was getting out of. Before Dantanian could get a word out of his mouth, Dorian made his demands. “First, before I hand this over to you, you’re going to transfer the shares over to the Sukekuni family. You can have one of your assistants check the vial if you need assurance,” Dorian said. Dantanian had a slight grin on his face. “That won’t be necessary; I'm quite certain it’s genuine.” He nodded to someone in his limousine; it was unclear who it was, as the glass was too dark to see through. “Miss Yuki, I think you will find that the share transfer is complete,” he said coolly. Yuki had her father on the phone for confirmation. “We have the shares, Yuki, everything is in order, you have done well,” he said, over the distant shout of excitement from her sister in the background. “Is everything good, Yuki?” Dorian asked. “Yes, my father confirms the transfer.” He handed the cooler over to Dantanian. “Here, take it. I don’t ever want to have to see you again. I'm not sure what you are planning to do with it, but you obviously want it real bad. Let me give you some advice. There are some things in this world that should just be left alone.” At that moment he began to feel very strange inside, as if a terrible evil was emanating from Dantanian’s limousine, closing around him with a sense of death and foreboding. “Wise words, Dr. Lystad. Allow me to add some of my own. You may think I have gone to great lengths for something that can be easily attained, but I assure you, you have no idea the lengths I will go to if I find that this is what we've been searching for. So tell whoever this belongs to that they should enjoy their freedom while they can,” Dantanian said with an evil look.

  Dorian felt his face go red. Did Dantanian know his secret, or was that just a reference to something else? “Well, if we are finished here, we will be leaving now,” Yuki interjected. Her bodyguards were looking intently at their surroundings Dorian didn’t say anything. He was turning towards their ride when his senses started picking up something else-- the sensation he had felt when the muggers attacked was returning. He could feel the electrical impulses coming from everyone around him; their heartbeats and their movements. There was something different about the occupant of the limousine, and about the man walking a dog at the far end of the parking lot. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it. The dog walker appeared normal, with long, brown hair, an olive complexion, and a scruffy shaven face, but Dorian sensed a different energy emanating from him. At that moment the man dropped the leash, turned, and within a second had run almost 150 feet up to Dantanian, who was still holding the cooler, and had snatched it out of his hands. The stranger then looked over to Dorian. “Run!” he shouted. Dorian and Yuki both looked astonished, as did the bodyguards, but not Dantanian. In fact, he appeared as if he was fully expecting it. “I was wondering when you were going make your move,” he said nonchalantly to the stranger. “You were the thief who took the last sample. Looks like someone has something to hide. No matter. My master will deal with you,” he said, stepping back. The stranger smashed the Styrofoam container. He grabbed the sample with his hand and it began to boil. The door to the limousine Dantanian came in opened. The stranger turned to Dorian and Yuki once more. “What are you waiting for? Get out of here!” An ethereal voice pierced Dorian's head and he felt a horrible sense of doom and dread come over him, as if he were losing his grip on reality. Yuki, dazed herself, shook him, grabbed his hand and pulled him towards their car. Her bodyguards, trembling in fear, drew their weapons and started to back up towards their vehicles, unsure of what they were witnessing, or what to do. The tall figure got out of Dantanian’s limo. She was wearing a long coat that seemed almost alive as it wrapped tightly around her body, leaving nothing exposed. It was some type of translucent material that shimmered with different colors, like one of those undersea creatures that live in the deep. Her face was radiant and her skin had an amber glow to it, both terrifying and beautiful. Her eyes were bright, as if illuminated from behind, and where there should have been hair atop her head, she had strands of lime-green peridot stone, sparkling like chrysolite.

  A bright light surrounded her hand and suddenly the hand transformed itself into a claw, glowing like molten metal. The stranger holding the vial observed her display of power with a stern expression, as if preparing himself for a confrontation. Dorian’s heart was moving much faster and he felt a despair and doom like he had never felt before. Dorian and Yuki jumped into their limo and both shouted to the driver to get them out of there, leaving the stranger to deal with the extraterrestrial-looking woman. “Did you see her face? What the hell was that? She looked like some kind of alien. What in the name of all that is holy is going on here?” Dorian asked. Yuki didn’t answer. She was still in a bit of shock, wondering if it was some sort of hallucination. As Dorian and Yuki's limo sped away, several stragglers leaving the memorial witnessed the confrontation between the woman and the dog-walker, who had himself produced a weapon made of light seemingly out of nowhere. It appeared to be himself-- a blade that was part of his forearm, glowing like molten metal similar to his opponent's claw. “I am Onoskelis,” the woman proclaimed, her voice sounding as ten speaking in unison with slightly different tones, producing a harmonious effect. The words were uttered in an unknown language which seemed to be laced with a spell. The stranger was able to understand and withstand it. “Your Ka isn’t going to work on me!” he yelled. As soon as the words left his mouth she was upon him, grabbing him by the neck with one hand and lifting him off the ground. His concentration broke, causing his weapon to disappear; both of his hands were on her one arm, desperately trying to get her to let go. She moved his head near hers. “I sense Gavri'el in you. I don’t care if you’re his offspring, if you get in my way I’ll destroy you!” The stranger managed to break her grasp and jumped back, surprising his attacker. There were more onlookers that had gathered in the parking lot wondering what was going on and a few of them appeared to be making phone calls. “Master, we need to go. We can get another sample from him later,” Dantanian said confidently. She flashed an angry look and got in the limousine. The stranger glared at the two of them and ran off quickly in the direction Dorian was traveling. Sirens could be heard approaching the area from the distance.

  Dorian and Yuki drove about ten miles from the harbor, not saying anything until the car pulled into the parking lot of a diner. The bodyguards traveling behind th
em pulled alongside their car, got out and went to the parked limo. “Okay, what just happened there?” Yuki demanded. “I have no idea; one minute I’m giving him the box, the next I’m in a Star Trek episode. Who or what was that? I’m beginning to wonder if this is some kind of caught on camera thing going on, but I can’t fathom how. No special effect I’ve ever seen looked that real.” “I was thinking the same thing the first time Dantanian was telling me about this fantastic blood sample. What is the story behind the super blood? Is everything true? Where did you get it? What is it? What is going on?” Dorian grimaced, then took a big breath and let it out. “Okay, this probably isn’t going to come as much of a shock after what we’ve just experienced, but here goes. The blood I gave him does seem to have some unusual qualities.” “Such as?” “So far, I know of no pathogen that can negatively affect it. The immunology is quite remarkable. It seems to have a chromosomal anomaly, as well as no shortening of telomeres over time. I have the full genome at home; I just finished sequencing it and compiling the data, but haven’t had a chance to do a comparative analysis. My computer's running a program for that as we speak. That’s pretty much it.” “You left out one big detail. Where did it come from?” Dorian decided he might as well get this all out in the open. “The sample belongs to me.” Yuki looked confused. “I know it was yours. Are you saying that the test tube had your blood in it? That you-” She stopped herself and paused for a moment, pondering his proclamation. “I suppose that makes sense; I see,” she mused aloud, piecing together the clues that supported his statement. There was the fact that the man beside her who was forty nine years old barely looked twenty five. She remembered him responding to one of his colleagues who questioned his youthful appearance. “Must be in the genes” was something she'd heard him say several times before. She also recalled the incident when everyone in the lab and most of the building had caught a bad case of the flu when one of the researchers using live virus didn’t follow proper handling protocol. Everyone was sick except Dorian. It still didn’t seem possible to her. “Yuki, I know this may be hard to believe, but I need you to forget about this and go back to Michigan, for your sake and the sake of everyone you know.” “It’s too late for that, I’m already involved!” she shouted. “Look what happened to my family. They’ll be coming after you now, I’m sure of it! If what you say is true, your blood is worth more than I could imagine, just considering your immune system.”

  “I somehow don’t think this is about money anymore Yuki,” he said in a depressed voice. “Why didn't you tell me in the first place? But I suppose you wouldn’t want anyone to know, especially the government.” She paused and looked at him, her mental wheels were churning.

  “What is going on? Why is he after you? Why go to all this trouble to get some blood from you?” “I really don’t know what is going on, Yuki. I wish I did, believe me. You’re right, things are not adding up. For one, why go through this whole elaborate scheme to buy up your family’s company stock to use as leverage against me? Why not just threaten me directly? I don’t get it; it doesn’t make sense. Also, what are they planning to do with it? Some kind of biological warfare?” “So they’re not after money, certainly curing infectious diseases are counterproductive to profit oriented entrepreneurs. The immortality part I can see of being high importance. We can clone blood, but we can’t alter the genome to any appreciable extent,” she mused. “With the exception of designer babies, no, not really,” he replied. She sighed and rubbed her eyes and Dorian did the same. “We probably shouldn’t stay here for too long, I’m guessing that Dantanian is going to be looking for you again,” she said. “Who was that guy with the dog? It seemed like he was trying to help you. Did you see how fast he moved? Please tell me I wasn’t hallucinating.” “Not unless we both had the same one. I can move quite fast myself, though I’m not sure if I’m as fast as he was, but that woman, if that’s what you want to call her, wow, that's on a level I can't comprehend.” “It seemed like he was trying to prevent them from getting your blood, which means he must know about its properties. Dantanian did say someone broke into his lab to steal the blood he took from you,” she said. “There’s a lot more going on here than what we know about,” he replied. Yuki smiled slightly. “So what else can you do? Can you fly? How about breathing underwater? X-ray vision? What color is my underwear?” He became flustered by the attention to his uniqueness. “Now you’re beginning to sound like Kasia! No I can’t fly, breathe underwater or microwave dinner with my eyes. To answer your other question, you’re wearing white with purple flower panties,” he said with a grin. She started to blush and crossed her legs. “Relax. You got in the limo before me, remember? Your underwear went above your skirt line.” She playfully smacked him on the arm. “Baka!” she yelled- Japanese for ‘idiot’. There was a tapping on the glass from two of the guards outside, who seemed to be in serious discussion about the events they witnessed. Yuki lowered the window. “Excuse me, miss, we really should leave the area. This island is very small and we really aren’t equipped to handle the supernatural,” the guard said, only half-joking. Yuki peered over to Dorian. “I don’t think we should go back to the hotel. Let’s get to the airport and return to Michigan.” Dorian frowned in confusion. “You aren’t going back to Japan? What about your father?” “My father will recover just fine; he had a mild heart attack. Now that he has controlling shares in our family company, he’ll want to get back to work as soon as possible. Also Aki is there, she’ll take care of him. I’m more concerned about you,” she said, looking at him, then down, embarrassed by her confession. “Yuki, I’m not so sure you should get involved any further. Things could get dangerous. All I wanted to do was get some answers about who I was and where I came from. I never knew my biological parents, so research was my way to find out something about myself.” She smiled at him. “I’ll be fine; I have you to protect me, right? Besides, who else is more qualified to help you find out about your family background?” He was still hesitant. “I may not be able to go back to the lab after all this. For all I know, my house is burning to the ground right now. You have a future and an education to finish. For now-” “For now I’m coming with you, because if I go back to the lab, who is to say Dantanian or this alien lady won’t come looking for me in the hopes of getting to you?” A defeated look formed on his face. “I have a feeling we may end up seeing them again one way or another,” he replied. It was becoming apparent his immediate fate was joined to Yuki’s. Dorian sighed. “Ok, ok, we’ll need to find a safe place to work from for the time being.” She smiled, feeling scared and excited at what the future might present. “I suppose I can request a leave of absence from the university and inform Engel and Kasia. I had better check on my mother to make sure she’s all right. My return flight doesn’t leave until tomorrow, so let’s find a new hotel for the night. We can have your driver drop us off at one near the airport. Call your sister and see if she can book you a flight to Michigan.” Yuki looked confused. “I thought you said we need to get to a safe house or something?” “I left my laptop running in the lab; it has all my data on it. I can’t just leave it there,” he replied. She looked outside at the guards standing by their SUV. “Let’s get out of the limousine. We’ll ride with the other guys.” The two got out and instructed the bodyguards to drop them off on the sidewalk near a strip of hotels not far from the airport. Once they found a decent enough looking hotel, they checked in for the night under false names. They had a single room on the seventh floor that had double beds, and windows overlooking the ocean. After getting situated, she ordered some Thai food and had it delivered to the room. Yuki called her sister in Japan and told her to book them both tickets with their father’s credit card, just so they could stay together. “Should we be getting a disguise and fake ID’s?” she playfully asked trying to lighten the mood. Dorian gave her a look as if to say “stop fooling around.” “Sure, I saw an advertisement in the lobby for authentic-looking fake ID’s, I’m sure we can have them before o
ur flight leaves. Besides, if they really want to find us they will, so you might as well give up on the whole cloak and dagger bit,” he said, deflating her balloon that was filling with fantasies of a couple on the run. “If anyone asks, we’re a pair of highly trained counter-terrorism experts. My expertise is biological weapons and yours is field operations. That sounds pretty exotic,” she said, staring off into space the way she sometimes did on occasion, undoubtedly daydreaming about a romantic drama involving the two of them. “Yes, because that’s the sort of thing counter terrorism experts tell people when they want to know what they do. You’re better off saying we’re architects or something,” he said, laughing. “It’s my story, get your own!” she yelled back, sticking her tongue out at him. He started to get the idea she was enjoying this bit of excitement in her life. It didn’t surprise him; years of study and boring lab work brought out the hidden adventurist in Yuki. Even Dorian felt a bit more alive after recent events. They couldn’t go incognito for long; he had a considerable amount of time and money invested in the lab. Then there was the matter of this stranger who had shown up out of the blue and helped them. Was he being followed? How else would this stranger have known of their meeting time and place? What were his intentions? The lingering questions kept Dorian from getting any sleep.